Day: July 3, 2025

Over on the Placencia Peninsula, a quiet battle is brewing and it’s all happening along the shoreline. Earlier this year, concerned residents took matters into their own hands, removing unauthorized jetties from the protected reserve in the name of sustainability. But just as quickly as they were taken down, some of those same structures popped right back up, reinstalled by defiant homeowners. One resident says the back-and-forth has become exhausting. After partially removing a re-erected jetty next door, they watched the owner put it right back, again. Even after the Department of the Environment stepped in with removal notices, the same homeowner has reportedly returned, placing rocks in the reserve and dredging sand from the seabed to fill behind them. Now, frustrated neighbors are speaking out, saying some property owners are ignoring environmental rules, dismissing community concerns, and showing little regard for the DOE’s authority.

On the Phone: Concerned Placencia Resident

“So I’m relatively new to my neighborhood and so are my neighbors who have been affected by erosion because of these jetties. And other neighbors that have been there long term have tried getting through with the government and it just doesn’t go anywhere. Recently, this year, we were able to get a hold of the Placencia Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development, and they started removing the rock jetties because they’re all on reserved land and that’s in our neighborhood. We did verify that these are non-permitted rock structures and this was also verified by the officials from the DOE that came out on May fifteenth, to look at the jetty that’s by our homes. And so, as far as the jetty that affected us, it was put in March nineteenth and it was removed by the coalition on April fifth. Then it was put back in by the same owner after the coalition removed it on May sixth and then we ended up, after they put it back in, we partially removed it as homeowners on the tenth. And then on May thirteenth, the DOE came out and issued warnings that the rock structures had to be removed. And so the homeowner that had the jetty immediately removed it starting on the fourteenth and fifteenth of May and now they put it back in but then also this time they are dredging sand out of the seabed and filling behind the rock structures.”

A land dispute is boiling over in Pomona Village after taking a violent turn. What started as a disagreement over property boundaries for seventy-year-old landowner Miguel Angel Trejo and his son, thirty-five-year-old Samuel Trejo, has now escalated into a serious safety concern. The situation reached a boiling point when Samuel, who works as a caretaker at Lemon Grass Farm, was allegedly attacked with a steel pipe by a man identified as Stoney Ferguson, leaving him with serious injuries.

On the phone: Samuel Trejo, Pomona Resident

“The issue is because they have a cave to my place and then he wants to take the cave he asked for permission to go to my property to access the cave I told him no problem right because I know him from long time but now he wants my place he cause me the problem because he wants to go to my place you know. Well from long time he come in like a friend and he said he wanted coconut so I let him take coconuts every time he comes and from there like how I said he came and he said he want access the caves and he want pass right and everything me di go good then afterwords he start to  pass the limit he burn down my bathroom he broke down my things them and then my dad gone make the report because I mi di work I neva have time and nothing get through so and the month weh gone he wait for me under my house with a piece of steel and wait until I come out I have my bathroom outside I walk out side and gone use the bathroom I feel the hit pan my head and he di lash me and I manage to get way and when I turn round and look I track da he and I tell him “watch weh you do to me” I tell ah “this no wa stay so I wah ker this da di police”